Share via

Sixteen German cities have written to Angela Merkel warning that they cannot
cope with the influx of Bulgarians and Romanians and appealing for millions
of euros in emergency aid when restrictions on immigration are lifted on
January 1.

The mayors of the cities said that “xenophobic forces” were exploiting turmoil
in flashpoint neighbourhoods that felt “completely overwhelmed” by eastern
Europeans.

From Hanover in the north to Cologne in the west and Hof in the east, the
letter, seen by The Times, warned of “far-reaching economic and
social consequences” of EU freedom of movement laws.

The cities did not state how

Subscribe now

Login

Already a subscriber?

To see the full article you need to subscribe

Subscribe

Login

With seven children to support and an eighth on the way, returning to Romania makes no sense for Violeta Sonolu.

She gets €1,418 a month in child benefit in Germany compared to €110 back home, where water for drinking or bathing has to be drawn from a well in her village of Barbulesti near Bucharest.

"It is better for me and my children to stay here," said the 25-year-old Roma mother. "We came because we heard there were lots of jobs and although I have not found work, at least there is the Kindergeld [child benefit]."

The two seven-storey blocks of flats where Mrs Sonolu lives with around 350 fellow Roma in a working class district of Duisburg in western Germany have become a notorious symbol of "poverty migration" — the wholesale exodus of troubled communities from one of the EU’s poorest countries to its richest.

Laundry hangs off cluttered balconies and dozens of children play outside even on a cold November day because local schools cannot take so many illiterate newcomers.

The mounds of rubbish that characterised the site a few months ago are gone, however, as the money being poured in by the city has slowly begun to have an impact on anti-social behaviour.

"Before we talk about integration, we have to talk about civilisation," said Rolf Karling, 52, the founder of Citizens for Citizens, a community support group that runs a soup kitchen and collects and distributes supermarket waste items and donated clothes.

"You have to teach them that the ceramic pot in the little room is the toilet, we have bags where you put the rubbish, and so on," he said.

"When they come here they are not civilised, they just open the window and throw the rubbish out."

The twin blocks are known locally by their street name In Den Peschen — "The Problem house". Police raids, noisy arguments and the sight of groups of Roma men hanging around have scared off most of the German residents.

"The landlord does not really care who lives in his building so we have nearly 100 per cent Roma," said Mr Karling.

"That means on the territory of In Den Peschen it is almost impossible for the state, for the police, to do anything. So you get criminals in there because there is nearly no control."

In the first six months of the year, there were 2,974 arrests of Bulgarians and Romanians in Duisburg compared to 1,800 in the whole of 2012.

City officials believe they have finally persuaded the landlord, the owner of Duisburg’s largest brothel, to stop taking in more families from Europe’s poorest ethnic group.

"In Duisburg and Dortmund, also Mannheim and other cities, we have a high number of empty and cheap flats which will be offered by people who rent them out room by room," said Frank Kopatschek, a Duisburg spokesman.

The city has fallen on hard times with the decline of its coal and steel industries and has 13 per cent unemployment, more than twice the national average.

"We have been very intensely talking to the landlord and have an agreement now that when families leave, he will not rent them out again."

Around 9,000 Bulgarians and Romanians live in Duisburg, and are arriving at the rate of 300 a month. The city has budgeted €18.7 million since 2012 for them, including preliminary classes at 12 schools.

"They can have a future here but our biggest problem is the travelling," said Eduard Pusic, a social worker with Future Direction Delivery, an aid group funded by the city which runs adult education and children’s activities.

"We try and get the children into school but after a few months a call comes from Italy or somewhere else that there is work and in a few hours the family has gone," he said.

"The parents were not in school, the grandparents were not in school, so they did not have much chance in the education system. It is a kind of discrimination."